Obama taps Tom Wheeler to head FCC

Tom Wheeler, seen here in 2002, has been tapped to oversee the FCC. (Los Angeles Times )

President Obama officially nominated lobbyist-turned-venture capitalist Tom Wheeler on Wednesday as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Wheeler is well known to the media industry. He has headed both the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn. Most recently he was a managing director at Core Capital, a private equity firm.

"For more than 30 years Tom has been at the forefront of some of the very dramatic changes that we've seen in the way we communicate and how we live our lives," Obama said in announcing Wheeler's appointment. Obama compared Wheeler's stints in both the cable and cellular industries to Bo Jackson, who famously played both football and baseball professionally.